1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital television receiver. In particular, the present invention relates to an image display method and apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, a consumer demand has been increasing for wide television (TV) receivers that can process greater than 480P (Progressive) input signal. The trend is expected to continue since future TV broadcasting programs will have an aspect ratio of 16:9.
Nevertheless, a most widely used standard TV receiver has an effective picture of 4:3 (or, 480I (Interlace)). Therefore, if an image signal of greater than 480P or a HD (High Definition) image signal of 720P or 1080I is received from the outside, the TV receiver judges that the image signal of a wide format is inputted, and adjusts the image signal to correspond to the effective picture size of the standard TV receiver to display the image signal.
A conventional image display method for a digital TV receiver as described above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B. According to the method, a user first designates a kind of the TV receiver. That is, the user stores in advance identification data on the kind of the receiver whether the corresponding TV receiver belongs to the standard TV receiver or the wide TV receiver.
In this state, if the image signal is inputted from the outside, the TV receiver retrieves the kind of the subject TV receiver, and if the inputted image signal from the outside is a 4:3 formatted image signal as illustrated in FIG. 1A, the TV receiver displays the image signal as it is. In contrast, if the TV receiver belongs to the wide TV receiver, and the image signal inputted from the outside is a 4:3 formatted image signal as shown in FIG. 1B, the TV receiver expands, the image signal to correspond to the effective picture size of the wide TV receiver to display the image signal.
As aforementioned, if the broadcasting signal of the standard TV is received, the conventional wide TV receiver simply expands the aspect ratio of the image signal to display the image signal. Expanding the aspect ratio of the image signal to correspond to the effective picture size of the TV receiver may cause distortion of the output image.